What is the best web host for blogging in 2023? Is there any web hosting provider that offers good support, themes, and backups for bloggers?
Choosing the best hosting platform for your site can take minutes if you follow the right recommendation and tips. But if you neglect the fact that every blogging platform or web host is better in some features can make cost you more or less money in the long term. In reality, there are many good paid and also free hosting services, but once you determine the goad for your site, you’ll be able to choose the best option.
Premium web hosts have faster loading time and more tools, features and they’re professional in the end. So, that’s the way to go if you want to start a blog for something important like writing, photography, fashion, food, etc…
On the other hand, you have free platforms that you can choose from and have a site that’s ready to use instantly. But these sites have limitations and there are no advanced options or domains for free like premium platforms.
Choose the free service only for testing and don’t invest all your time with a service that can shut down all your blog for any reason.
You should own your site and be able to manage it or move it any day you want without any problem, and unfortunately, there is no free platform that offers that and guarantee it. Only paid options have daily backups, domain names for free, etc…
If you don’t look for specifications and features, then, here is the list of the best blog hosting sites we recommend and tested:
Best web hosts for bloggers:
- HostGator is the best option for bloggers who just started
- WP Engine will be the right choice for faster WordPress blogs
- Liquid Web should make your WordPress blog better than competitors
- InMotion Hosting can save you money in the long term
- Hosting platforms: With both free and paid solutions
Best WordPress Hosting for bloggers
When it comes to quality, ranking, and user experience, only a good paid web hosting service can make your blog working the way you want.
Unlike the free hosting sites, paid services are faster, more secure, and comes with a long list of tools, features, and best of all, there is the customer support that you can call by hone and get help. So, here is the list of the top-rated WordPress web hosting providers that we tested and recommend for you.
1. HostGator
HostGator is well known among bloggers and business owners there is one-click installer software for your preferred software such as WordPress, Drupal, and others. In addition, the user can see the server resource usage directly from the cPanel account.
Of course, FTP is available and it lets you upload and also download files in or to your blog with easy clicks. By the way, we recommend using FileZilla, it’s free and the most popular FTP software to use.
HostGator offers one of the best blog website builder tools, you can use it to design your owns blog without the need to hire a web designer. In addition, there are lots of tools for security, backup, domain name management, and more. Even better, there is a one-penny hosting offer for the first month, so, you can try it and host a blog for just $0.01 the first month.
2. WP Engine
WP Engine is a premium quality website hosting provider for professionals. It cost $35 per month, and everything you need to build a professional blog is included in your subscription.
So, there are dozens of Genesis child themes to choose from, these WordPress themes come with the latest HTML5 and CSS 3 Schema markup, best SEO optimization, and clean code that Google can easily crawl and understand.
We should also mention that compared to other website hosts, WP Engine is the fastest provider with a superior quality caching system and fully customized servers.
Now, you don’t need any caching plugin like what other web hosts suggest, WP Engine optimized the servers for the fastest loading time and the best performances.
Also, there is a great web hosting dashboard and account management that looks easy to understand and also to use. The WP Engine portal comes with blog cache management, error log files for both Nginx and Apache servers, SSH logins, PHPMyAdmin database access, and management, and much more.
So, if your main goal is to start a blog that looks professional and you can pay $35 a month for something that worth it, then, chose this top recommended service and you’ll win the competition with other site owners in the same niche.
Faster loading time, clean code, and best practices should have a positive impact on your blog ranking on Google if you have good content, of course.
3. Liquid Web
Liquid Web is a dedicated web hosting provider in the first place, however, they have a special WordPress hosting platform with great optimization. So, you can give it a try, and if you’re satisfied, you can continue using their hosting or cancel anytime. If you’re looking for fast and reliable best web hosting sites for bloggers, then, choose LiquidWeb and et their fully managed WordPress hosting plans.
Keep in mind that Liquid Web is a dedicated blog hosting site for high-traffic websites that need lots of resources, however, if you think that your blog will need lots of RAM, bandwidth and you need it to work fast, then, choose this service.
There are automated daily backups, a free SSL certificate, automatic image optimization with a premium plugin you can use for free, and more.
What we don’t like about Liquid Web managed WordPress hosting is their pre-installed Script optimization plugin, it may make your blog look broken in web browsers. So, make sure you test it and change the settings one by one. That may take a half-hour, but the result will be great.
Liquid Web aggressively caches the WordPress static assets and even HTML, CSS can cause issues with the display. So, try that advice and adjust the settings as you need, or remove the script optimization plugin if you want.
If you make changes, especially with CSS or design, you can purge the WordPress cache from your admin area. There will be a dedicated link to the page cache management at the top of your WordPress admin area.
From what we tested the last years, Liquid Web is the best web hosting solution for any food blog, that’s because their accelerated servers and CPU works well with an exceptional caching system that delivers photos and recipes faster than other web hosts. So, no matter if you’re looking for a reliable web host for food, fashion, or any other project, this will be a perfect choice.
4. InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting is one of the best affordable blog hosting sites for writers that work well because it provides everything in one place. In fact, there is no need to think and waste the time with web design and related issues, there is a professional drag and drop WordPress site builder plugin that comes with every account.
So, what the writers have to do is simply to add the content and share their passion for writing with readers, bloggers, and journalists.
If there is any problem, their technical support department is always available and you can contact them by phone or live chat if you want, tell them about the issues and they’ll be happy to assist you and fix any problem.
Best free blog hosting platforms
Blogging is free if you want and you don’t have to use any credit card or PayPal account in order to get it. However, the domain name will not be professional as you may expect, and features are limited and you don’t own your website at 100%.
So, if you want to choose this kind of hosting, then, use it for a blog that you want to use for testing or for something that’s limited in time.
The Google platform
Google offers a free blog hosting site that works, but don’t expect the same features as a paid web hosting company. You can install your customer theme, but the domain name will be a subdomain that ends with blogsport.com.
Blogger comes with its own integrated monetization, you can enable Adsense with Google. However, it’s not easy to get approved, you need lots of traffic, in reality, you need thousands of daily visits to get approved from what we tried. So, if you have that traffic, you surely need a custom domain, which’s better for you.
Tumblr
This is another free blog hosting site and platform owned by WordPress now, but it works differently, it’s like a microblogging platform that looks similar to Twitter but has more options. You can follow other bloggers and they can also follow you and love your posts.
Your domain will end with tumblr.com and you can only get a professional domain if you pay. For options, customization and management, you have options to modify the layout and design, but there is no way to make it fully customer like a paid web host.
We found Tumblr a blogging platform that lots of beginners use to share images and get lots of interactions. So, lots of photographers use it, but only if they don’t want to monetize the traffic. If you want to make money with your site, then, choose one of the above premium hosts.
WordPress.com
This is not the same as WordPress.org that you can host anywhere you want with any company. WordPress.com is a commercial platform where you can get a blog and a free subdomain that ends with wordpress.com.
That being said, there are limitations for WordPress, you can’t get what real bloggers have unless you upgrade to a premium plan. So, if you want to try and see how things work, then, use WordPress.
Choosing the right blog hosting platform
These are the best options and services for hosting a blog, there are premium and also free platforms and web hosts. So, choose the one that looks good for you. But if you want to save time and effort, we recommend getting your premium hosting services from one of the best providers and HostGator is the best option for hosting a blog. It works well and you can monetize your blog, make it professional, looks good and you’ll have all the options and tools in one place.
Blog hosting: Frequently asked questions
Is Blogger a good blog site?
The short answer is no, here is why: Blogger is a free blogging platform owned by Google, it lets users build their own blog using the default subdomain”blogspot.com or to add their own domains. But for features, customizations, and professionalism, it’s not a good place to start a blog that makes you money or that drives traffic from Google. Only choose this free blog hosting platform to start a simple blog for testing, but not for a professional site.
How do I host a blog site?
To launch a blog, you need a web hosting plan, domain name, and of course the theme that will make the design and layout of the blog. So, to host a blog site, choose any of the above options we recommend, then, login to your cPanel account or other types of web hosting account management tool, then, install WordPress, next, install the theme and add some basic plugins for security and contact. That’s it in easy steps host to host a blog and start it.
How much does it cost to start a blog?
The average cost to start a blog is $100 or so depending on the blogger’s needs and web hosting plan. The web host cost on average $80 per year for shared accounts and the domain name cost is $10 or more depending on promotions and options.
On the other side, if you think that your blog will need more resources and speed, then, the cost to host it will be $35 or so per month for a managed WordPress hosting service that’s super fast and fully optimized for speed and performance
Which hosting is best for WordPress?
Some web hosts work better than others for WordPress, and because there are different server configurations and specifications, it’s not that easy to compare web hosting providers and tell which one is better. However, it’s the blogger’s responsibility in the end to pick the best web hosting service based on his needs, budget, and the features he’s looking for. But if there is a web host that’s the best for WordPress and blogging, it will be HostGator, it’s reliable, easy to use, fast and the customer support is top-notch.
